KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
To talk to about Kari Lake’s new job in the Trump Administration, AG Kris Mayes’ new lawsuit and more, The Show sat down with Marcus Dell’Artino of First Strategic and Matt Grodsky of Matters of State Strategies.
Conversation highlights
MARK BRODIE: So let's talk a little bit about and stipulate before we start this, that none of the three of us in this room are lawyers. … Attorney General Kris Mayes, who is, of course an attorney, sued the Saudi company Fondomonte this week.
She'd been sort of telegraphing that this move was coming for quite a while. This is a company that has an operation in La Paz County in western Arizona, they grow alfalfa, send it back to Saudi Arabia for their cows to eat. The attorney general, Matt, is using kind of an interesting strategy here. She acknowledges it's not really been tested to use this way, these nuisance laws, to try to stop the, the groundwater pumping here.
I want to ask about sort of the politics of all of this because, you know, water for the longest time, you guys both know this, was seen as sort of a bipartisan issue in Arizona. Recently, it's maybe become a little bit less so, especially on the state level with the Legislature, not really being able to come to agreement between Democrats and Republicans, urban and rural lawmakers on what to do about this. How is this going to play at the Capitol, do you think?
MATT GRODSKY: Well, it remains to be seen how it's going to play at the Capitol. But I think for Mayes in particular, it's a, it's a great political win. I mean, she ran on this back in 2022. She's obviously taken action on it. Still obviously continuing to do that, I think, and what I've seen on the ground talking with not just Democrats but independents and Republicans is beyond the Legislature, the issue of water transcends politics, right?
I mean, you've got people in agriculture that are stressed about it. People in metro areas are worried about, you know, what is it going to look like 10, 20 years from now. And the very simple concept of foreign company taking our water resources and essentially shipping it overseas for lack of a better explanation that resonates with people. So I think from a political perspective, it's a, it's a good thing for the AG to keep up.
BRODIE: Marcus, what do you think?
MARCUS DELL’ARTINO: I think Kris had a banner week. Probably maybe one of her best since she's been in office. One with this announcement. I mean, honestly, how are you gonna lose on this one? You're, you're opposing a foreign richer than rich government who's taking our water and then the asset that they're getting from that water, they're shipping overseas. I mean, come on. So that was her first win.
And then the one that's really undervalued I think that I'm hearing from more and more people is … the merger of Kroger and Albertsons, … which was blocked this week. And Kris was passionate about that issue. And I, I'm with her on it frankly, as the one who has to go do the most grocery shopping in my house, but the only person who was louder about it than me was my mother, my God. And so she was, you know, it was a great week for her.
BRODIE: Well, so, OK, so let me, let me ask you this then does this help Kris Mayes win over people like your mom?
DELL’ARTINO: Oh, you know, we don't even have a nominee on the Republican side yet. So God only knows how that goes. But I will tell you my mom now knows who Kris Mayes is. And yeah, and, you know, I know you'll find this shocking but not everybody in my family is glued to the political section of the newspaper. But, but she's, you know, I think she was excited, but oddly enough, she was more excited about the anti-Kroger-Albertson's decision than, and water. But, but both were big wins for her politically, and I think Republicans should sort of tune into the, on the water side, particularly moving into the session.
BRODIE: Well, so Matt, Marcus said, you know, who's going to oppose going after a very wealthy foreign government taking water here and shipping the, the assets overseas? But we saw earlier this year there are some Republican lawmakers who tried to put in a, a bill, did put in a bill that the governor vetoed to stop Mayes from using nuisance lawsuits. Understanding that this was at least one of the companies she was going to go after. So presumably it's not all sunshine and lollipops.
GRODSKY: It's a great question. I mean, logically you'd think no one would oppose that. But I think folks in the Legislature on the Republican side tend to bank on the average voter not getting that information, not knowing that part of the story.
So I would argue it's incumbent on Democrats as a party as a messaging apparatus. Obviously, the Mayes’ campaign once that gets up and going to tell that story, right? Because it defies common sense and that will resonate with people across the political spectrum. And I don't, I don't know Marcus' mom. She sounds wonderful, but I imagine more voters like that, who maybe weren't familiar with it to begin with will tune in and see, OK, you know, that seems like a logical step. Why would anyone get in the way of that?
BRODIE: In the category of putting the cart miles and miles before the horse here, let me just ask about the next election. Why not? I mean, there are people already saying they're running for stuff.
Kris Mayes has said that she's going to run for AG again. There's been speculation, maybe she would run for governor or something else. Does this something like this, Matt, help her, especially with more rural voters in terms of maybe not just the, the groundwater issue, but maybe as Mark has brought up the, the grocery merger as well?
GRODSKY: Yeah. Well, first of all, I think everyone in the executive is going to be running for reelect in their positions. But yeah, I think it absolutely does remember she's from a rural community and I think if there's anything that Democrats need to take from this past cycle is that we need to talk more with folks in rural counties across the state. So I think this story definitely resonates
BRODIE: Marcus, do you think this helps Chris Mays in places where Democrats have been struggling?
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, I think, and Kris is probably doing the most out of it out of any Democratic candidate out there. But if you noticed her town halls in La Paz County particularly packed, absolutely packed, and that's not exactly known as a liberal bastion.
And then when she did town halls and that this was a smart move strategy on the merger of Safeway and, and Fry’s, and those town halls were packed, and they weren't just packed by Democrats. So she's using these issues strategically to her advantage.
BRODIE: So in terms of like if you, so if you are Kris Mayes and well, I'm not, I don't think anybody's suggesting she doesn't actually believe in these issues that she's, you know, she doesn't, she wasn't using the merger, for example, as a political issue. I think she really believed that. She, she's talked about this groundwater issue from when she was running for AG in the first place.
Are the but, but again, like we're a long way out from another election and these, you know, water is one of those issues that everybody talks about being important. But in terms of how you vote, not usually in the top few I issue areas of how people decide to vote. Is there work to do to sort of tie these together to make it salient to voters in, you know, a year and a half?
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, I absolutely think there is. I mean, you, you use those town halls and that energy to sort of build support so you can pivot into other issues. I, I don't think we can, I don't think that the landscape is going to change too dramatically over the next two years.
I think illegal immigration will continue to be the number one issue in the country. I think inflation and the economy will continue to be the number 2, 3 issue in the country. And so you, you're gonna have to pivot on that and then, you know the rumor and I will just say it's the rumor is that one of the Republican nominees for AG would be the current Senate President Warren Petersen. And he's definitely got experience in home building and development and that comes with water experience too.
So, there'll be a counterpoint on that, but they're also at this for the next two years at the Legislature, sort of a battle of the heads as you, if the AG is gonna try and pass something, you know, it's gonna be difficult, I would say through the Senate.
BRODIE: Matt, do you think that this lawsuit makes it more difficult, less difficult, no difference in difficulty in terms of trying to get big water stuff done at the Legislature next year?
GRODSKY: It depends on what the Legislature wants to do in terms of if they want to, you know, throw a wrench in that or, or if they actually want to cooperate. But I think regardless of what they decide to do, I think that to Marcus' point, you know, a lot of these issues are still going to be top of mind, you know, two years from now. And unfortunately, water is still going to be a problem for us at that stage.
So I think tying this all together in a package for a reelect and talking about what we need to focus on long term. I think that's something that the party and the AG can focus on in their messaging.
